Business

Nestled behind a blanket of trees in a quiet Shelbyville neighborhood sits a hidden gem – Fuzion Athletics, an athletic club like no other around.

Owner and coach Jamie Steffen does not train basketball or football players, but rather he’s a pole vaulting coach, and with his unique facility he’s singlehandedly putting Kentucky on the pole vaulting map.

With only a handful of similar facilities across the nation, most of his students travel more than one hour each way every week to train at Fuzion, Steffen said.

Bright yellow going-out-of-business signs adorn the street front of a longtime Shelbyville business and inside disheartened customers moan phrases of disbelief as they discover their favorite fabric store, Making Ends Meet, is closing.

But owner Leslie McCarthy assures this is not the end.

“We are taking an online approach to our fabrics at this point,” she said. “Our fabrics and trims will all go online at discounted prices, and we are expanding our class time. We’ve been offering classes for several years now.”

There may not be much new information for tobacco farmers to absorb this year, but what has changed is that they have to attend a workshop if they expect to sell their tobacco, officials say.
And they’re going to have to keep taking the class every year.

“The word that they're trying to get out, is even if they got trained last year, they have to go to an updated training,” said Bob Pearce, a tobacco production specialist at the University of Kentucky who teaches GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) training classes.

Industrial hemp is set to spread like a weed across the commonwealth this year, after more than 325 farmers have applied to host pilot projects, and it could even sprout up in Shelby County.

The substance was legalized for test production in the state last year after decades of being considered illegal because of its relationship and similarities to marijuana. However, after a number of pilot programs began growing hemp for research purposes in 2014, the state will issue more licenses this year.